We are publishing an interview of Mr. Pravin Sharma, CEO and Founder, Eshiksa
About the founders
Pravin Sharma (CEO and Founder) – Pravin is the person instrumental in starting this venture as a founder. He takes care of entire operations of the company through the team and also takes care of the strategic alliances. Pravin started eshiksa after working in the service Industry for more than 13 years including Payments, Trading solutions, Stock Market and Mutual Fund distribution. Prior starting this venture Pravin was working with Atom Technologies Ltd as National Sales Head and played a key role in rolling out various innovative products for Atom Pan India.
Please tell us about the investors (if any)
Ans: Mr. Dewang Neralla – A very active angel investor who has invested in more than 25 startups at a early stage and known for growing company’s for next level of growth.
Mr. Mahavir Pratap Sharma (Head Rajasthan Angels and Tie Rajasthan) – Mahavir Pratap sharma is a very well known active investor and mentor and has been instrumental in mentoring many startups to success.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Ans: During the atom days realized that education is one sector where technology is not being used widely specially smaller and mid sized Institutes and also its very costly for them even if available.
Tell us about the Product / Solution. Explain how you went about the Product-Market Fit Process.
Ans: eShiksa is one of the solutions in this way forward where we propose to provide innovative and cost effective Education Management service to the Education Institutes. eShiksa is an education management portal that facilitates smooth management of educational affairs of an Institute. The portal helps educators to manage, analyze and report extensive data, while saving time by eliminating repeated data entry. It covers all the aspects of educational business, including administrative, academic and accounting activities. eShiksa provides the parent/student a single window for viewing various reports on the academic front and also paying all kinds of school/college fees online. The Parent/student can pay fees and make other payments online in a secure and convenient manner.
What were your assumptions when you entered the market, learnings that you have? Who in your mind is your ideal customer? Do you have atleast one of them signed up?
Ans: When we went to the market we went with the idea of providing solutions to all categories of Institutes with an affordable pricing and cost model so that more Institutes can come under the umbrella. Today we have more than 450+ Institutes using the platform.
How are you pricing the Product? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc. ? Explain your thought process.
Ans: The product is available in various variants including free offering for starters and then there are paid options for advance users.
How did you get your first customer?
Ans: We got the First client in a very small town near Jaipur Rajasthan in 2014 for POC.
What is the big picture of your startup? Is this Product leading to something bigger? If so, how?
Ans: We plan to be an Online Platform for On-demand services in Education and we plan to launch more services at the student/parent end for generating revenue from the end user.
What is the insight that you have about this market, which no one else has? Uniqueness about your Startup.
Ans: We want to be a service provider offering a wide range of services to the Institute which are cost effective and innovative which resolves real problems of an Institute.
List all the names of the core Team Members, along with their Designated Roles – How you see them evolving over time. What would be each of their Skillsets? – Elaborate also if any of the team members has a specific domain expertise.
Ans: Pravin Sharma (CEO) – Pravin is the person instrumental in starting this venture. He takes care of entire operations of the company through the team and also takes care of the strategic alliances. Pravin is having more than 13 years of experience in the service Industry. Prior starting this venture Pravin was working with Atom Technologies Ltd as National Sales Head.
Mradul Bahety: He is the CTO and takes care of the technology. Have 10 years of experience in mission critical technology platforms. Mradul has been a key member of the team and has delivered critical solutions for the company.
Anchal Agrawal: She is the Head – Business Operations and takes care of the acquisition and day to operations related to services. She has joined eShiksa after a successful stint with CISCO and has a wide experience in the field of implementation and client servicing.
Who do You Perceive as Your Competition?
Ans: There are players in the market who are offering the solutions including fedena, NIIT, TCS etc.
What would be your goal to accomplish in the next six months?
Ans: We want to on board 750+ Institutes with a user base of 500000+ and enable more services on to the platform.
What message do you want to convey to fellow entrepreneurs?
Ans: Startup is a journey which you should enjoy, each moment of it. There is nothing like a failure or success, its all an experience which matters most as you started this because you wanted to do it for yourself not for others. So chill and enjoy the ride…